Baskerville House developer collapses
The property developer behind Birmingham's £30m Baskerville House development and the Baskerville Wharf project has entered administration. Targetfollow lost its battle to continue trading owing about £680m to its lender, Lloyds.
The company collapsed owing about £680m from two separate loans with the bank. A £230m loan with the bank matured in July, while a £450m loan was due to mature this month.
Administrators from Deloitte have been appointed to handle the case.
According to reports, Targetfollow’s chairman Ardeshir Naghshineh was in talks with potential investors, but no deal had materialised before Lloyds took the company to court.
Last month, it emerged that Targetfollow was in dire straits with its loan repayments.
At the time, Naghshineh told Insider: "We are being charged 6 per cent for our bank loans when the government has driven the base rate down to 0.5 per cent specifically to help businesses through the recession.
"The Bank of England has just criticised the banks for their interest rate ‘mark-ups’ to homeowners and the truth is that the same thing is happening to commercial property companies."
He added that the company had presented “a large number of viable solutions to Lloyds”, which had all been “rejected out of hand”.
